Tyrrell's planted their Heathcote vineyard in 1994, on the ancient russet red Cambrian soil, at the foot of Mt Camel along the southern end of the Colbinabbin Range. This narrow strip with its unique topography, gives the wine its rich, yet refined flavours that typify Heathcote wines, especially Shiraz. The climate is warm, dry and reliable from year to year. Vines are relatively low yielding, producing grapes which are renowned for their ability to ripen to complete flavour development, yet still retain excellent levels of natural acidity and tranquil, fine grained tannins.

Shiraz is the cardinal red wine grape of Australia, it reigns supreme in viticultural precincts across the nation, planted to fine vineyards in Heathcote however, it comes into its own as a unique regional style that's renowned throughout the world. Tyrrell have gone right to the heart of Australia's most illustrious Shiraz appellation to realize parcels of fruit with tenacious tannins and profound varietal character. An inclusion of fruit from good vineyards on the Limestone Coast, McLaren Vale and Hunter Valley, rounds ot the wine and tames the tannins.

Tyrrell made a major contribution to the development of Heathcote as a world class winegrowing region. One of the earliest pioneers, they sowed the seeds and established the vines which launched the second gold rush into Heathcote Shiraz. Lunatiq is minimally handled to encourage the eloquence of terroir to speak, dark chocolate tannins support a mouthfilling palate of red currant flavours and piquant spice, followed by a lingering, well balanced finish, a titillatingly enigmatic fragrant mineral lift.

Fashioned to capture the excellence and refinement of the classic Hunter Valley Shiraz style, named after Brokenback Mountain Range with which Hunter Valley shares a terroir of auspicious deep red volcanic soils. Tyrrell's source fruit from superior, dry grown, low yielding vineyards which have consistently produced the finest vintages. Hunter Valley makes a Shiraz as distinctive and unique as the renowned appellations of the old world, structured and aromatic, endowed with enticing fruit and lined with elegant tannins.

After a remarkable five years on the prestigious Wine Spectator Top 1OO, the Two Hands story has gone from strength to strength. The team are focused on injecting their wines with real identity, personality and charm. Lily's Garden is crafted without compromise from fruit grown to superior vineyards within the Two Hands estate portfolio. The palate is filled with rich flavours of raspberries and black pepper spice, liquorice allsorts and plum. The finished wine is an unctuous Shiraz with striking dark colour and cryptic aromas.

Michael Twelftree and Richard Mintz established Two Hands with the aim of making the best possible Shiraz wines from fruit grown to good vineyards. Their intention was and still is to show the diversity of Australian Shiraz by highlighting regional characteristics and allowing the fruit to be the primary feature of the final wine. By working closely with growers and focusing on small batch handling, Two Hands are able to identify parcels of old Barossa vineyard Shiraz which can be assembled into an exceptional wine of salient varietal definition.

Qality without compromise, industry savant Robert Parker has identified Two Hands as the finest negociant operation south of the equator. The Two Hands are within easy reach of the finest harvests from the Barossa's most wonderful old vineyards. Bella's Garden is assembled after a rigorous determination of the best barrels of maturing Two Hands Barossa Shiraz. Densely coloured, almost black in colour, it exudes powerful bouquets, ripe plum and succulent blackberry flavours, laced by wisps of cedar and spice.

Only a few hundred cases of this profound red wine are made each vintage, crafted without compromise from the very best parcels of Shiraz grown to the most distinguished sites in the Barossa and McLaren Vale. True to style with great concentration and density balanced by elegance and restraint, in perfect pitch and fine harmony. The tannins are silky and refined, the mid palate dense and rich. A statuesque, deeply flavoured Shiraz, the estate flagship, matured in exclusively new French oak barriques, a memorable experience that's approachable on release.

After the crushing of grapes and completion of ferments, most red wines are filled to oak, it is here that the ageing barrels must be topped up from time to time, as a portion of the stocks evaporate into thin air. It's known in winemaking parlance as angel's share. A wine of great personality, personable and charismatic, the very best of McLaren Vale in every way, Angels Share articulates the more vivaciously ripe and upfront style of Aussie Shiraz.

Excellent Langtons Classification. It was at Turkey Flat, on the banks of Tanunda Creek whence bush turkeys once roamed, that pioneer Silesian settler Johann Friedrich August Fiedler planted the first Shiraz during the 1840s. The maturing vines on Section One, in the Hundred of Moorooroo, were bought in 1865 by Gottlieb Ernst Schulz, a successful butcher who established a thriving business among the vines. The Schulz family are still there and up to a fifth of the grapes in today's Turkey Flat Shiraz are picked off the gnarled old vines of 1847.

Established 1847 by Johann August Frederick Fiedler, much of the credit for the finest Shiraz in the world is due to old vines such as Turkey Flat. Dry grown and gnarled, their roots extend metres into the soil in search of moisture. That they still exist is largely due to a far sighted quarantine scheme, as South Australia was spared the phylloxera outbreak which devastated vineyards around the world in the late 1800s. After five generations of stewardship by the Schulz family, a small parcel of fruit from the original 1847 vines is bottled as a superior vintage release.

No you're not seeing things, a Shiraz so nice, they named it thrice. An assemblage of fruit from the legacy of estate vineyards, planted to the oldest soils in Barossa Valley, very near the ancient hamlets of Stonewell, Gnadenfrei and Greenock Creek. A confluence of pastoral terroirs and more rugged terrains form a tapestry of unique mesoclimes, from which to fashion a velvet textured Shiraz wine with juicy fruit, crisp acidity and refined tannins.

Damien Tscharke was born and raised a sixth generation Barossa winemaker, he grew up amongst the vines at Seppeltsfield while attending Marananga Primary and Nuriootpa High. Gnadenfrei is the oldest vineyard within the Tscharke estate portfolio, established over seventy years ago by Damien Tscharke's grandfather, the terroir and clime yield an exceptional quality of Shiraz. A substantially structured, youthful Barossa style, driven by fruit and kept vital by rich, cherry filled acidity.

Distinction is the jewel in the Tscharke crown, only ever made in the most exceptional vintage years, crafted from priceless parcels of Shiraz, hand picked off the elite Gnadenfrei property in the ancient Barossa hamlet of Marananga. The mesoclime here is fortuitous for Shiraz, an auspicious terroir of conglomerate pink quartzite and shallow red brown clays, the ideal environment for low yields of the most intensely flavoured fruit.

The Tscharke family have been a part of Barossa viticulture for six generations, they know all the other heritage growers well and can access some of the region's finest Shiraz. Choice parcels have been assembled for vinification into a full bodied style of palate weight and opulence, purposefully fashioned to drink early as a young wine. The trick is to isolate those harvests which have been picked on the perfect day of optimal ripeness. A solid Shiraz of juicy fruit flavours up front, supported by sound structure and affable Barossa charm.

The folks who make wine at Kellermeister wear boots and have purple hands. The winemaking here really is old world style, nothing is done by machine. Parcels of hand selected grapes from choice Barossa vineyards are fashioned into an exquisite Shiraz wine offering generous helpings of deliciously rich, sweet blackberry flavours and requiste Barossa dark chocolate characters, finishing long and fruit filled on a note of lingering spice. A superb choice with barbequed or roasted meats, rich desserts and fine aged cheese.

Trentham Estate was once part of a large sheep station called Trentham Cliffs, settled in the 1930s by the Chanter family. Grazing and viticulture have always been a close fit, the property eventually made the transition to agriculture and the inaugural edition of Trentham Estate was vintaged by the Mildura Murphys in 1984. Trentham retain a superior site of Shiraz in the very heat of the Heathcote region, for the creation of a generously proportioned wine, characterized by a seamlessly layered palate of piquantly spiced berry flavours and stylish, velvet tannins.

The Trentham Murphys were amongst the first settlers to establish vineyards near Mildura in 1909. They remain one of the most eminent grower families and make the region's most prestigious wines. The Murphys endeavour to preserve the health of Murray Darling's wetlands, so essential to the national ecosystem. Every bottle of River Retreat affords a donation to the Murray Darling Environmental Foundation. A delicious drop in its own right, representing exceptional value, the Shiraz of choice to accompany char grilled rib or braised shanks in red wine jus.

The Torzi Matthews team work to a formula that low yields translate into big, flavoursome wines. They selected a property in one of the most inhospitable parts of Eden Valley, where unending toil and frigid climes realize meagre amounts of parched berries each vintage. From grapes grown to the chilly surrounds of Mount McKenzie, incorporating the undried parcels of fruit earmarked for the estate flagship Frost Dodger, Mathews and Torzi craft an intense yet acessible construct of Eden Valley Shiraz to match bold Mediterrannean cuisine.

A partnership between Torzi and Matthews, they stumbled across a small, frost pocketed hollow on beautiful Mt McKenzie in Valley Eden. Torzi Matthews fell in love with the area for its remoteness and diverse thin soils. Attraction to the site was immediate, it was clear that this patch would produce low yields of Shiraz which could translate into the luscious style of dry racked Italian Appassimento wines. There were plenty of detractors and lots of unsolicited advice. The vines went in, frosts came and yields were low, Frost Dodger was born.

Before David Powell took on the task of raiding Barossa vineyards, he spent several years on the Scottish Highlands as a lumberjack in the Torbreck forest. Woodcutter Shiraz is a highly approachable introduction to the Torbreck range, featuring fruit from some of the up and coming vineyards, rather than the battle hardened old warriors which make up the heart and soul of the Torbreck winelist. This is the kind of red the winemaker himself liked to drink with a hearty meal after a hard day's work in the wood, but you don't have to be a woodcutter to enjoy it.

Torbreck believe that they source fruit for The Laird from the greatest vineyard on earth, owned by the Seppelt family, it commands a price for its harvest that's commensurate with the most prestigious first growths of the old world. There have only ever been four vintage releases, such is the strict criterion for quality. Two precious hectares of Shiraz named Gnadenfrei, yield a crop of small, concentrated berries, the envy of all growers and winemakers in Barossa Valley, only the most exceptional years are worthy of The Laird.

A pure, single vineyard wine, from fruit picked off a single plot of Shiraz, planted 1960 and still managed by the same family. The rocky surrounds of Greg and Cynthia Knight’s highly elevated block of vine were so very reminiscent to winemaker David Powell of stone burial grounds on the hills above Torbreck forest. Nestled into the eastern slope of Mt. McKenzie, this cherished site yields a harvest of parched, intensely flavoured berries, brimming with extraordinary character, lined with the most graceful tannins, endowed with remarkable balance, elegance and poise.

In the early 1980s, due to lack of demand, the government paid incentives to growers to rip out their vines and gut some of Australia's most precious old vineyards. The movement to cool climate viticulture made the Barossa, of all places, look rather irrelevant. The Factor is Torbreck's salutation to those dedicated growers who stood by their vines and continue to painstakingly produce small harvests of the most splendid Shiraz. A wine of immense concentration and great purity of fruit that only the most meticulous husbanding of vines can achieve.

The view from Struie down towards Dornoch Firth, is as inspiring as the panorama across Barossa's Valley floor from atop the elevated ranges. David Powell assembles Shiraz from ancient, isolated little Barossa vineyards, some are well over a century of age. Sourced from several elevated sites throughout the Barossa and Eden Valleys, Struie reflects the cooler side of the region and showcases the subtle nuances which can be gained from hillside viticulture, for a full bodied and powerful, rich red wine of purity, focus and intensity.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. From vines up to 140 years of age, planted to the most distinguished sites at Marananga and Moppa, Gomersal and Ebenezer, Greenock and Kalimna. A flagship wine of phenomenal density, a remarkable port like concentration, fashioned from parcels of the most invaluable Shiraz, compounding the wine's irrepressible bouquets and epic palate. The intensity of flavour hits the mouth like a gale, releasing a multitude of layers and complexities that continuously resonate and evolve.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. RunRig was a system that the highland clans employed to distribute property and holdings. It appropriately defines the Torbreck flagship, crafted from small yields of the most precious hand sorted Shiraz, picked off a canon of very old, dry grown vineyards. The emphasis is never on any one proprietor or farm, but rather the communal elements of the whole. RunRig is a wine which exhibits so much power and latent richness, that it is compared with the epicly structured and perfumed first growths of Cote Rôtie.

A wickedly decadent indulgence, an extravagant gratification for the hedonist within the most wayward Barossa enthusiast, here are Torbreck at their nefarious best. Heinously high in alcohol and not for the feint of heart, a single unique parcel is called upon, only ever in the finest vintage years, hand picked off a precious, sharefarmed block at Moppa. Treated to a meticulous old world vinification techniques, Highland Fling is arrested mid way through fermentation with a fortification of Torbreck brandy, lifting the intensity of palate and infusing evocative perfumes.